St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-06-06
USE AND ABUSE.
All Things May Be Sunk in the
Mire--Rey. MOrriII,s Sermon.

All innings May be sunk In the
Mire---Rev. MorrilTs Sermon.
Moses rod was more powerful than
the fasces of a Roman lictor, but it lost
its usefulness and beauty when cast
upon the ground, and did not regain it
until restored to its proper sphere. Like
it is much in social, private and political
life, which has been thrown in the mire
and made Snake-like and devilish, and
will remain so unless He who works /.
always and nightly comes to the rescue.
The Bible is unsurpassed for thought,
originality, style and power. Spiritual
truth above all other has proved itself
to be humanity's greatest blessing, and
yet men have degraded it into Shiny.
Kissing reptile. Gods word is savior
or life unto life or death unto death.
Like the sun it stimulates the health
and perfection of living things, while
fastening the corruption of what is
dead. The Bible either elevates us by
its lofty sway, or we degrade it by our
neglect, doubt, captiousness and sin to
what threatens us with the sting of death.
The pulpit has been divine lever, rails,
ing much of the world from the slough
OF sins dependency and death. Yet it
has often been degraded by demagOgues
and devils, who for money, popularity,
pleasure and pride, have preached to
the times instead of the eternitieS, and
made their members twofold more the
children of hell. The church is degraded
every week by men who slight Gods
mercy and ScOrn His threatening voice.
who harden their hearts by careless
hearing and sleepy attention, who make
religious work a loss instead of gain,
and who by their lives of selfish gratifi-
cation practically say religion is the
least concern all other things below.
Printing, with words soft as the SNOW
fake or loud as thunder, has said let
there be light and the darkness of the
middle ages has given place to meridian
sun, yet too often the pHeSS grindS like
Samson in prison instead of sitting OH
throne, does service in the workshop of
the devil, and by picture and word pre-
sents columns in which crawl
the snakes of sensualism and sin.
Pleasure is abused by those who make
it life's business instead of an incidental
and recreative thing, and venture the
questionable, as Ulysses did with his
men in the cave of Polyphemus, finding
it is only for a season and the end
thereof in the winter of death. Bust
ness is degraded when it drives men
with the lash of a taSkmaSter, so that
they have no time to be kind and social
to wife and children at home; when gold
is regarded as the only God who helps,
ton are pushed next to the wall. Man
with an immortal soul has no business
with any business that does not pay
heavenly dividend on the investment.
He is fool for time and eternity who
worShipS the creature more than the
Creator. Politics have been lowered to
what is literally and fguratively a
''spOils system" Americans have
often echoed the cry of Nine.
Roland upon the scaffold: "Oh,
Liberty, what crimes are committed
in thy NAME" Freedom consists more
in free men than spread-eagle maxims
or institutions called American. Poll
ticians, blinded by the father of lies, have
substituted repeatedly party for princi-
pie and trailed in the dust what should
stand in the heavens. If we are true to
our mission the national heart will be
pure and there will issue from it a
stream which shall reflect heaven as the
lake does the sky above it; if we are
false and put into our platform the rot
ten planks of lust, liquor and avarice
Gods justice will Shiver it into kindling
wood for the earth S final fire. Personal
freedom is abused when for the eXpec-
tatiOn of some perishing advantage men
sell themselves to Satan and receive
nothing but disease, shame and shackles
in return. Infinite and loving Provi-
dence has surrounded us with trial and
temptation that we may gain peace and
strength. Man is to require the rich
treasures of character and he mars and
degrades his privilege when present
time and opportunity pass unredeemed.
Sad is it to know that man is the
only animal who sins against his
nature and then tries to flee from
the enormity of his sins, as Moses did
before the serpent, only to find the pro-
phetic utterance true, 'Though they be
hid from my sight in the bztom of the
sea, thence will | command the serpent
ana he shall bite him." Man has the
power to create evil as Frankenstein
did the dull, yellow-eyed fiend that
strangled the life happiness out of his
soul, and unless his heart is cleansed
and his will strengthened he will do it